Portable electronic devices including, for example, smart telephones and wireless PDAs are becoming increasingly common and typically integrate functions of personal information management such as calendaring and data communications such as e-mail, World Wide Web browsing and telecommunications in a single device. Such devices run on a wide variety of networks from data-only networks such as Mobitex and DataTAC to complex voice and data networks such as GSM/GPRS, CDMA, EDGE, UMTS and CDMA2000 networks.
It is common for individuals to use such portable electronic devices for storing calendar events for display on the device in an electronic calendar. Some portable electronic devices allow the user of the device to schedule meetings with invitees by creating a new calendar event and entering information such as the time of the meeting, the location and contact information of the invitees. An electronic message is then sent to the invitees in the form of an invitation to the meeting, typically via electronic mail (e-mail). Such electronic invitations provide the invitee with the option to accept or decline the invitation to the meeting. If accepted, the meeting is stored as a calendar event in the electronic calendar of the invitee.
In some cases, it is desirable to advise an interested party of a meeting taking place. For example, a person may wish to be advised that a particular meeting is taking place and may even be interested in the outcome. However, that person does not wish to be present at the meeting. To ensure that such a person is advised of the meeting, the organizer of the meeting can choose to simply add the interested party as an invitee and expect the invitee to decline the meeting invitation. Unfortunately, when the meeting invitation is declined, the meeting information is not saved for the interested party to view later. Alternatively, the organizer can send a separate e-mail to the interested party, after scheduling of the meeting, to advise the party of the meeting particulars. Of course, this requires that a separate e-mail be sent, duplicating much of the information already input when scheduling the meeting. Further, these efforts must be repeated in the event of changes to the meeting schedule.
Improvements in notifying interested parties of meeting scheduling are desirable.